Acheron closed his hand and the image of Astrid and her sisters vanished. "Everyone deserves to be loved, Zarek. Even you."
"Shut up!" he snarled. "You don't know what you're talking about, Your Highness." Zarek spat the title out. He was so sick of people lecturing him when they were ignorant of what he'd been through.
It was easy for someone like Acheron to tell him about love. What did a prince know about people hating him? Despising him?
When had anyone ever spat on the Atlantean?
But Acheron didn't speak.
At least not with words.
Instead, an image came into Zarek's mind. One of a blond teenager in chains in the middle of an ancient Greek home. The boy was bloody while being beaten.
He was begging those around him for mercy.
Zarek's breath caught as he recognized the youth...
"I understand you in a way no one else can," Acheron said quietly. "You have a rare chance, Z. Don't fuck it up."
For the first time ever, he listened to Acheron. And he looked on him with a newfound respect.
They were far more alike than he could have guessed and he wondered how Acheron had found the humanity that had abandoned Zarek so long ago.
"What if I hurt her?" Zarek asked.
"Do you plan on hurting her?"
"No, but I can't live here and she-"
"Why don't you ask her, Z?"
"What about her mother?"
"What about her? You were willing to fight Artemis for Thanatos. Isn't Astrid worth just as much?"
"More." He met Ash's gaze with fired determination. "Where is she?"
Before Zarek could blink, he found himself in the atrium Acheron had shown him.
Atty looked up with a hiss. "No man is allowed here!"
The one Acheron had called Clotho started to attack him. But she pulled up sharply as Acheron appeared beside him.
Zarek ignored them as he concentrated on Astrid who sat there with tears in her eyes, staring at him as if he were an apparition.
His heart pounding, he walked over to her and knelt down before her chair.
"Stars aren't supposed to cry," he whispered so that only she could hear him. "They're supposed to laugh."
"How can I laugh when I have no heart?"
He took her hand into his and kissed the tip of every finger. "You have a heart." He placed her hand over his. "One that only beats for you, princess."
She offered him a trembling smile. "Why are you here, Zarek?"
He brushed the tears from her cheeks. "I'm here to collect my rose, if she'll come home with me."
"Don't even go there," Atty cried. "Astrid, please don't tell me you're going to listen to that drivel?"